2007-06-19

To me, there's no better source of My Next Favorite Things than recommendations from people whose taste I trust to be good & adventurous. I like to think that my own taste is both of those things -- veering occasionally into the trashy, ridiculous, and snobby, but veering all about is part of being adventurous, right? -- so I'm here to share three of my current favorite things:

Avril Lavigne's song "Girlfriend": If you have not heard The Song of Summer 2007 (I know it's early to call this race, because we could easily have a "SexyBack"-style late entry sometime at the end of July, but I'm willing to be wrong later), get thee to iTunes immediately. It's probably peaked in popularity already, but it's so insanely catchy and earwormy that I just...can't...shake it. I'm a little bit perturbed by Avril's apparent 180 from bratty, yet at least sort of empowered non girly girl to still bratty, but stereotypically pretty girly girl. Still, there is no denying the Toni Basil-inflected, crunching guitars, crush on crack appeal of this song. Listen, and then listen again.

The Mighty Boosh: Like most good comedy, this BBC 3 show is almost impossible to describe, but I'll try: Howard Moon, jazz enthusiast, and his friend, the super-fashionable Vince Noir, are zookeepers at a bizarre zoo called The Zooniverse, but they spend very little time there. Instead, they spend most of their time on absurd adventures and quests that take them to places like Monkey Hell, where they help the Ape of Death overcome his coiffure problems, and the Tundra, where they attempt to capture the Egg of Mantumbi, a huge sapphire. Oh, and there's always a musical interlude in each episode. It may not sound hilarious, but trust me: it is. Check out this clip, the introduction to the first episode of Series One:

Marcus & I are now Boosh-aholics, inviting each other out for violent quiches and pulling Mod Wolf moves. The show isn't available on DVD in the US, but there are clips aplenty available on both YouTube and the BBC website.

Percy Jackson: Well, I'm certainly late to this particular bandwagon, but better late than never, eh? I am always on the lookout for good fantasy series to read, and while I'm waiting for the next installment in Garth Nix's Keys to the Kingdom and that famous wizarding kid's last stand against You Know Who (please don't kill Ron please don't kill Ron please don't kill Ron), son of Poseidon Percy Jackson is a very welcome new character. Rick Riordan's books, which posit that the gods of Olympus are very much alive, well, and cantankerous as ever, are rollicking good fun. The more Greek mythology you know, the more fun they are, but you don't have to know Zeus from Cupid to enjoy the ride.

I think this is a potentially fun meme, so I'm going to tag a few people. If you want to continue the fun, tag some other folks in turn. What are your three current favorite pop culture-y things? You're it: Carlie Webber (our newest team member), Pete Bromberg, RL Hartman.

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